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Zulu

Zulu

Drama · History · War · 1964

In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War, man-of-the-people Lt. Chard and snooty Lt. Bromhead are in charge of defending the isolated and vastly outnumbered Natal outpost of Rorke's Drift from tribal hordes.

Movie details

Zulu

“Dwarfing the mightiest! Towering over the greatest!”

1964 Drama · History · War 2h 18m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.7 / 10

45.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

97 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

77 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.4 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War, man-of-the-people Lt. Chard and snooty Lt. Bromhead are in charge of defending the isolated and vastly outnumbered Natal outpost of Rorke's Drift from tribal hordes.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Zulu?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Cy Endfield

Written by

John Prebble · Cy Endfield

Stanley Baker

Stanley Baker

Lt. John Chard R.E.

Jack Hawkins

Jack Hawkins

Rev. Otto Witt

Ulla Jacobsson

Ulla Jacobsson

Margareta Witt

James Booth

James Booth

Pte. Henry Hook

Michael Caine

Michael Caine

Lt. Gonville Bromhead

Nigel Green

Nigel Green

Colour Sgt. Frank Bourne

Paul Daneman

Paul Daneman

Sgt. Maxfield

Court is in session

Put Zulu on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.